Estelle Manor in Oxfordshire

For our last stop on our UK summer adventure, we took a taxi just a half hour from Oxford to stay at Estelle Manor, an imposing manorial hotel in Oxfordshire and a destination unto itself.

When I booked hotels for this trip I chose Estelle Manor based on a stellar rating in the UK newspaper The Telegraph, whose reviews I use a lot for trip planning around the world. In fact this is one of just two hotels in the UK to be awarded a perfect 10 by that paper. So for our final stop I decided to splurge on a nice suite here.

Strangely I must not have cross-checked TripAdvisor reviews at that time, which I virtually always do. (I research hotels a lot and like to process lots of opinions.) A few weeks ago I did pay a visit to TripAdvisor, and the reviews of Estelle Manor were horrible. So many reviews trashed the place, their sleazy business practices, the chaotic check-in, the dirty rooms, the bad food, and the terrible service. One reviewer went on and on about how disgusting and filthy the gym was.

How could the Telegraph assessment be so wildly different from everyone else’s opinion? I dreaded ending our trip at this expensive, crappy place. And my reservation was non-refundable. How did I screw this up so badly?

We arrived and approached the check-in process with dread. But it wasn’t as chaotic as a lot of reviewers said. In fact, Svetlana was super gracious and informed us that they’d upgraded us to the best suite in the hotel. The room was truly spectacular. The restaurants — one British/French, one Chinese, one Japanese — were incredible. The public spaces were stunning, buzzy, and stylish. The service was perfection. And the gym was one of the best hotel gyms we’d ever encountered.

What on earth happened? The best I can guess is that somebody (A competitor? A disgruntled customer or employee?) orchestrated an on-line attack on this place. Cuz it’s one of the best hotels we’ve ever been to. Worth a splurge. A perfect finale for our UK summer.

One of the buzzy, beautiful lounges at Estelle Manor

Our incredible room at Estelle Manor

Sunday roast

Beautiful sashimi at the Japanese restaurant

We did tear ourselves away from Estelle Manor for a morning visit to Blenheim Palace, the home of the Dukes of Marlborough and the birthplace of Winston Churchill. I was there in 1992 with my parents and fondly remember having a great tour. Sometimes great memories can’t be relived. This time Blenheim had a lot of disruptive renovation going on. And It was very crowded, in no small part because a huge auto show was taking place on the grounds. Less than perfect, but still kind of an amazing place.

Blenheim Palace, possibly the most audacious home in Britain

Winston Churchill was a man of many talents. This is the room where he was born, decorated with his own paintings.

Exploring the gardens of Blenheim

Britain’s biggest auto show was also taking place at Blenheim

There were thousands of fancy cars here

Winston Churchill himself!

So now we head home. We booked this trip to escape the heat and humidity of a New York summer, and we did so quite successfully. The temperatures rarely exceeded 70°F (21°C). We didn’t get any beach weather, but we didn’t bake either. We had plenty of mist and gloom, enough to be atmospheric. But we hardly ever had enough rain to stop us from doing anything. Not bad! So now we go home for the fall season we love in NYC. See you there!

You probably can’t tell from the picture, but just as we arrived at Heathrow airport for our flight home some of the nastiest, windiest, rainiest weather of the whole trip moved in